Facebook’s Registration Tool

Facebook has launched a new registration tool that enables websites to offer quick and easy social options for users to sign-up.

This is a terrific alternative to using Facebook Login, (formerly known as Facebook Connect) especially when 1) You would like to provide an option for those users who don’t have Facebook account, 2) Your site requires additional information not available on Facebook, or 3) You want the flexibility of HTML, molding the login to your site in any way you see fit.

It’s ideal to minimize any sort of inconvenience for the user on your website, and traditionally, a registration page has been a big turn off for users. Often times they don’t see the value. With Facebook’s registration tool, you make it easy for people to sign up and bring their friends with them, and it’s proven that people are more likely to follow through with the sign up process, will be active on sites longer, share more content, and return more often. For example, FriendFeed beta tested the tool and their sign ups by users with Facebook increased by 300%.

How it Works

Like many of Facebook’s add-ons, the registration tool is a simple to use iframe that can be added to websites using just one line of code, and can be customized to request specific fields you decide are requirements to creating an account. If a user is logged into Facebook and navigates to the same page the registration tool resides on, the form will be prefilled with their relevant information the user has shared on their profile. It’s also very transparent, users can easily see the specific information the site is requesting, giving them more control over whether or not to sign up.

The website can request Facebook information such as name, verified email address, current location, etc. Custom information can also be requested, such as text fields, checkboxes, dropdown menus, security checks, etc. Ultimately, users can decide whether to share their information or not by clicking the “Register” button, and if a Facebook account isn’t a registration requirement by the site, the user will have the option to complete the form manually. Information isn’t a security risk, because the tool operates through an iframe, no data is shared with the website prior to registration completion.

Should a user register for the site with their Facebook account, the website is then given permission to access basic user information on Facebook in addition to the data that was present in the form, ultimately providing the user with a personalized and social experience.

Getting Started

Integrating the registration tool into your site is a simple process, you can add the iframe or XFBML to your website:

Using iframe:

The redirect-uri points to the page that will be processing your signed_request. The fields attribute can be customized to suit your needs. Facebook has docs that list valid fields you can utilize.

Using XFBML:

The redirect-uri and fields are exactly the same as above. It’s important to note that you must use your own app_id if you want the redirect-uri to be on your own domain.

As always, Facebook is full of useful documentation to help you get started on implementation, be sure to hop over to their technical documentation page for detailed explainations.

What do you think? Is this something you would consider implementing on your site in the future?